20 Facts About Abraham Lincoln (And His Family) - mental_floss on YouTube - List Show (308)

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. Wait a second. This is not my salon, Mark

This is a huge collection of Lincoln memorabilia. We are at the Lincoln Collection at the Indiana State Museum

By the way, did you know that Abraham Lincoln hated the nickname Abe? It was his political managers who insisted that the names Abe and Honest Abe made him sound more approachable

This is useful information to know, by the way, because most documents signed Abe Lincoln are fakes

He preferred Abraham Lincoln or A. Lincoln. For instance, that copy of the 13th Amendment is signed to Abraham Lincoln

That's the... that's real. Anyway, that's the first of many facts about Abraham Lincoln that I'm going to share with you today on April 15th, the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination

Abraham Lincoln's mom, Nancy, died when he was nine years old. But soon his dad remarried a woman named Sarah, who helped raise Abraham

The family lived in Indiana, and Sarah encouraged Abraham to study and read books like Robinson Caruso

When Lincoln's future wife, Mary Todd, was in her 20s, she had many suitors who wanted to marry her

One of them, attorney Stephen Douglas, was actually Abraham's future opponent in two elections

the 1858 senatorial election in Illinois and the 1860 presidential election. Abraham had some other romantic prospects, too

He dated a woman named Ann Rutledge, who died of typhoid fever in 1835

Then he was engaged to a woman named Mary Owens, but they broke up. And then he was engaged to Mary Todd, and then they broke up

But then they got re-engaged and then married. Very similar to my romantic life, actually

I don't often say that I'm like Abraham Lincoln, but we both have been involved in a lot of breakups

None of mine fortunately involved typhoid fever just me getting dumped Lincoln was elected to be a captain in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War but he never actually went into any battles He later recalled If some saw any live fighting Indians it was more than I did

But I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and although I never fainted

from the loss of blood, I can truly say that I was often very hungry

Before serving as president, Lincoln spent five terms in the Illinois legislature where

he made many political alliances. One was with Democrat John McLernand, who gave Lincoln a walking stick

This is that very walking stick, which Lincoln often carried with him. He didn't really use it for walking, though, because he was quite tall and was a little

too short. In 1858, Lincoln lost the election for a U.S. Senator from Illinois to the aforementioned

Stephen Douglas after they'd done a grueling series of seven debates. But Lincoln then published the debates in a book, which became very popular, and in writing

at least, Lincoln's arguments were very compelling, which may have had something to do with the

fact that he was elected president two years later. That's another thing Lincoln and I have in common. Both published authors

Lots of breakups. Both published books. He ran a country. I sponsor a fourth-tier English soccer team

It's essentially the same list of accomplishments. Lincoln's secretaries called him the tycoon. Their nickname for Mary Todd was not as nice

They called her the Hellcat. Lincoln's presidential predecessor, James Buchanan, didn't take the best care of the White House

So when Mary Todd moved in, she spent tens of thousands of dollars on furnishings for the house

but, you know, because this was a time of war, that wasn't particularly popular with the public

This is one of the chairs that Mary bought to fancy up the White House, and I have to say it is quite fancy

For the celebratory ball after Lincoln's second inaugural address, one of Lincoln's favorite foods was served, oysters

But the staff didn't prepare enough oysters, so the buffet became extremely chaotic

The Washington Evening Star reported, The floor of the supper room was soon sticky pasty and oily with wasted confections mashed cake and debris of foul and meat The Lincolns had four sons although three of them died before reaching adulthood

Willie and Tad got into a lot of mischief at the White House, doing things like standing

on tables during cabinet meetings, racing their pet goat through the halls, and throwing

things at visitors from the roof. The oldest Lincoln son, Robert, was the one who actually survived into adulthood

But he almost died in the mid-1860s. He nearly fell onto train tracks at a railroad station

while there was an oncoming train, but an actor named Edwin Booth managed to grab him

by the collar. Edwin's younger brother, John Wilkes, assassinated Abraham Lincoln about a year later

Robert went on to work for three presidents. He was Secretary of War for both James Garfield

and Chester A. Arthur, and he was also Benjamin Harrison's ambassador to the United Kingdom

Mary Todd and Abraham didn't drink much. I knew we'd find something that we didn't have in common. Plus, they lived in the White House during a time that the temperance movement

was becoming popular, but they generally did have at least a light liqueur to serve guests

And this is the cordial set they used. I asked the people at the Indiana State Museum if they

ever, you know, just like take this out and have a brandy party. Apparently they do not

Lincoln loved telling jokes and anecdotes. Like in 1856, he attended an editor's banquet

for journalists, where he felt very out of place. To break the tension, he told a joke

in which he likened himself to an ugly horseman. In the joke, the horseman meets a woman who

who says, well, for land's sake, you are the homeliest man I ever saw

And the horseman replies, yes, madam, but I can't help it. And the woman responds, no, I suppose not, but you might stay at home

This is a copy of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude

unless it was a punishment for a crime. It was ratified in 1865 which means that most copies of the 13th Amendment were signed by Andrew Johnson because Lincoln had already died Lincoln got into some trouble for trying to pass the resolution without the state approval so he only signed three copies before his death including this one

Witnesses to Lincoln's assassination included Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara

Harris, who were in the presidential box at Ford's Theatre with the Lincolns

Because he wasn't able to save Lincoln, Rathbone became very mentally ill over the course of

the next few years, and about 20 years later, he murdered Clara and then attempted suicide

After Lincoln's death, his body was put on a train from Washington, D.C. to his final

resting place, Springfield, Illinois. The trip took 13 days and over 12 million people showed up to watch the train and pay their respects

Many of the major cities, in fact, held their own funerals as the train passed

Ten years later, a group of grave robbers tried to steal Lincoln's remains and hold

them for ransom. Luckily, a Secret Service agent had managed to infiltrate the gang so the robbers were captured

Abraham Lincoln enjoyed a good joke and a good story. He was at times a somber man

So we're gonna finish on a somber note. Unfortunately, there are no more Lincolns in the world

at least not descended from Abraham Lincoln. His last two descendants, Peggy and Bud Beckwith

died in 1975 and 1985, respectively. But it's worth noting that there are still lots of

people with the last name Lincoln, not just that guy from The Walking Dead, but also many descendants of slaves who took the surname Lincoln in honor of Abraham